Police

There has been a disturbing trend toward increased gunplay in my part of town. These are almost exclusively gang-related incidents where dealers are taking potshots at other dealers if they see the competition infringing on their territory.

Gang-related or not, there needs to be a stronger response from all community leaders, not only the Ottawa Police. And this needs to happen quickly, before a stray bullet hurts or kills a bystander like this 15 year old in Vancouver.

It’s really only a matter of time.

But like I noted, what should happen in addition to a stronger police response (whatever that exactly looks like) is a full community response to the crisis; and yes, this is a crisis. By “full community”, I mean the OPS, the City of Ottawa, the area Community Associations and the School Boards. Four distinct bodies that need to work toward common ends that will stop this trend in its tracks.

And yes, I include the School Boards as one of these four entities.

Speaking about the number 4, Ottawa has four, count ’em four, Boards within its borders. Yes. Four.

But I’ll leave that for another time…

Anyway, all of these Boards, but primarily the largest of them – the OCDSB and the OCSB – have a stake in the mitigation of this emerging crisis. They too have a responsibility to work with the CAs, the police and the City representatives and elected officials.

So, let’s get moving on this! And yes, I’m looking at you too, OCDSB and OCSB, because while we have been hearing about useful sessions with the communities hosted by the OPS and City Councilors, there has been nary a peep from our local Trustees.

Darin over at the Squid Zone and I don’t always agree on things. He’s a bit to the right politically and I veer to the left. He’s more supportive of armies and wars and stuff and I’m a confirmed peacenik. But hey, we always have a good yuk at tearing up each other’s positions or giving kudos when due.

And this post exemplifies one of the latter. The Squid Dude has pushed a few dollars over to the Conservative table once in a while it seems. In the past he has felt this to be a worthy contribution to a party that has shared some of his political orientations.

Like the Squid, I’m more than a little freaked out about Bills C-46 and 47… the Bills that I affectionately refer to as the Orwellian bitchin’ legislation.

The gist of the words is this: any police force in the country will have the legal means to ask for and receive any communications – electronic or paper – from anyone to anyone. Without prior consent or cause.

Your postal mail has about the same general level of privacy as your internet traffic. So imagine the government proposes legislation that permits them, without warrant, to require Canada Post, Federal Express, UPS, DHL, and so forth to provide customer information whenever someone claiming to be a peace officer asks for it. Furthermore, they require those companies to install the equipment and procedures to allow them to intercept your mail and packages at a moments notice when requested, without a warrant. Further still, they retain the right to OPEN and READ all the packages and mail, without warrant, just because they want to. Unacceptable? I should think so. There’s a reason we have a process that involves warrants and the police explaining themselves to a judge.

Sorry. Don`t trust the cops as it is and giving them even more arbitrary power sends shivers up my spine.

Write someone, folks.

Or, if you are a CPC member who is being asked for more money, do the following: